Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 is STM Lens for Canon SLR Cameras (Renewed)

Purchased a refurbished Canon T5 last June with two (2) kit lenses. The standard EF-S 18-55mm IS lens and a telephoto EF 75-300mm III USM non-IS lens. The later was one I never really warmed up to. Let's call it like we see it -- I.Q. was and is not up to Canon expectations. Read any serious review and see for yourself. I also missed image stabilization, especially at longer telephoto zoom lengths, like I had on my old FujiFilm S100FS. Full zoom, no problem! Came across this lens on Amazon couple days ago. I'm getting ready for a quick cross country drive and I wanted this lens to replace my EF 75-300mm lens on this trip. Best part, the price was right. What I like: * Right off the bat -- a true Canon USA Certified Refurbished lens was in the box * USA warranty by Canon -- one (1) year from date of purchase * Registered this lens on Canon USA website -- serial number took and registered it to my Canon USA account * The overlay sticker on the box - certified refurbished - New (whatever that means?) * Sticker underneath was a factory Canon refurb sticker with both Canon barcodes * Enclosed was Canon refurb warranty paperwork disclosing the limited one (1) year Canon USA refurb warranty * When I opened the package, the contents had that new product smell * The lens was in absolutely perfect condition * Shipped in a Canon refurb brown (not white) box like other Canon lenses I purchased -- no damage to the outside of the box * Focus on my T5 was quick and silent * Front lens element does NOT rotate like other older Canon EF or EF-S lenses * Lightweight, 58 MM lens/filter opening * Made for a crop frame (APS-C sensor) Canon camera body (will not work on a full frame Canon camera) I have some doubts: * Plastic mounting flange between body and lens -- be carefull mounting it * Plastic body -- not weather sealed * It is not "L" lens quality, but for the price Too short of time to see how this lens will truly perform, but my quick test shots show that this lens at full zoom (250MM on the lens scale), inside the house with a 6/10th second @ f5.6 exposure came across great. There is some softness around my wall clock lettering, but nothing like my old EF 75-300mm lens that blurred the picture like a leaf blowing in the wind. Both were handheld shots. My test will come in a week or so. I will supplement my review after I have more field time with this lens. So far, so good. Stay tuned. ******* 5/04/2017 - Update I have had some time to use this lens, not as much as I thought I would, but still. Posting several pics for your consideration. One of the sun at full zoom (f5.6 @ 800 ISO for 1/80th sec.). Snipped a 100% crop to bring in what detail I could. The other was of the moon setting just after sunrise on Donners Pass in Truckee, CA. All were RAW pics post processed in DxO Optics Pro 9.5.2. Not the greatest, but something additional to see. This lens works great, but the auto focus didn't work well on the Sun picture. That was manually focused and manual focus works far better on this lens than my old Fujifilm S100FS ever did. ******* 04/29/2018 - Update It took long enough for me to post some additional pictures. I have not used this lens as much as I thought I would have. That being said, I dusted this lens off yesterday morning to shoot the April 2018 Mt. Charleston Marathon in N/W Las Vegas, NV. This refurb lens performed flawlessly throughout the entire shoot! The pictures I shot came out as expected. I performed no cropping, sharpening or noise reduction functions to any of these sample photos. All pictures were shot in RAW (CR2) format and post processed in DxO Optics Pro 9.5.2 only to taste. Further, the photo compression used by Amazon does NOT do these photographs any justice. I picked some finer detail objects to share with you regarding sharpness of this lens. IE: The box picture -- the labeling on my full size picture is clear and crisp, unlike the photo displayed on this site. Not the lens or my fault, just Amazon picture compression at work here. For a refurbished lens, Canon did an outstanding job turning out a very high quality product that you will be pleased to use. If you are skeptical about buying refurbished products -- don't be from Canon. Actual Canon refurbished products perform exactly like new products and Canon stands behind that product with a full one (1) year manufacturers warranty. ******* 10/27/2018 - Update I had another opportunity to use this lens this past week. Visited the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area on the west side of Las Vegas. While in the parking lot, a number of gray ground squirrels were running under an SUV. Took a couple shots. I attach them for your review. At just about 100 feet away, under the SUV in deep shadows, you can see them . Notice the lettering on the rear tire. Crisp results from this refurb lens.

I bought this as "Amazon Renewed." It came in the original box which was rather beat up. The lens itself had no visible defects and was in fine condition, but it didn't have that brand-new unhandled sheen and smell that you sometimes get from factory refurbs. This was a fantastic value though. This lens is very sharp and produces image quality much higher than I would expect at its price point. I moved over to Canon from Nikon and previously shot with Nikon's similar value 70-300mm and expected the same so-so clarity, but was very surprised with the sharpness and clarity that I actually got. The image stabilization is very strong and effective in this lens. You can clearly see it in action as you try to make tiny composition adjustments by moving the camera but the image stays in place. It doesn't let you hand hold for seconds, but you can definitly get more keepers at 1/30th, 1/15th, and similarly slow speeds that would normally blur from hand-shake. Given the quality of image and stabilization I would choose this over the Canon 75-300mm for APS-C cameras (even though the 75-300 as a bit more reach.) The only complaint I have about this lens is that it looses contrast very noticably when aimed towards a bright light and wide open. Many other lenses handle this scenario better. For the price though it can't be beat if you only shoot telephoto occassionally like I do.

Renewed condition was great. No issues with the lens yet!

A week ago I bought this at Best Buy.. I know.. I know.. I wayyy overpaid. I'm not sure why I did it either. I looked up this lens online and to my amazement found refurbished ones here on my favorite store (Amazon). I returned the one I got from best buy and ordered this. I'm just an amateur photographer and this lens is for my Rebel XS. I have to say that this is a much better price at $169 than $299 at best buy! So what is this lens? It's an EF-S 55-250mm lens with Image stabilization and an STM motor. It's very quiet as opposed to USM lenses. This makes it an ideal lens for shooting video. The image stabilization works well!. Because this is an EF-S (Crop sensor camera only) lens, it's effective focal lengths are actually 88-400mm. That's pretty awesome capability to be able to reach out to 400mm with decent optics for only $169. It's no L series lens by any means, but canon put this out for people who don't want to spend a fortune, yet you can still have some fun! I upgraded to full frame sensors awhile back and this suits my price point interest much better. I wanted this lens to have a little more fun with my XS and this gets me to that level. You can't tell this item is a refurbished lens in any way shape or form. I'm very analytical when it comes to scratches and cleanliness and this is a 10 out of 10. If anyone can sniff out a bait and switch or scam on a used item, it's me! This lens is for anyone with a Crop sensor camera.. Rebel XT, XTi, XSi, XS, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, SL1, T6, and the 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 7D, and 80. Bottom line.. you can't go wrong. For an in depth review check out Ken Rockwells page: [...]

I am comparing this to the 75-300mm kit lens that comes with Canon cameras. The kit lens has no image stabilization. I do most of my photography at a local dogpark. So I'm tracking fast moving objects completely hand-held. This lens achieve slightly less zoom (250mm), but it seems to autofocus about twice as fast as the kit lens, which is good. The downside of that is that it will quickly autofocus on the wrong thing if your focus point falls of your subject. On the other hand the fact that there is image stabilization lets me take indoor pictures with a zoom lens using only natural light. I am enclosing an example at f5.0 1.60sec. This is a refurbished lens, but it works like new.

This is the refurbished by Canon lens. It came in a box that looked like a new lens box from Canon. It was well packed and protected inside the box and came with a front and rear lens cap. Its serial number registered on the Canon web site for the manufacturers 1 year warranty without problems. The lens looks, feels and smells new. The zoom adjustment ring was very slightly stiff out of the box but has eased up after a few days of use. The autofocus is totally silent and fast. It's capable of very sharp pictures and compared to my original 18-135 kit lens is in a totally different league. The pictures above were taken on a tripod but without any other aids for close up. The weather here has been terrible and I haven't done much with it out doors yet, but that should change this week.

I used to have the 70-200mm 2.8 IS II for my 7D. But I’m not a pro and found with its size, weight and color I was leaving it home. I also used it primarily outdoors where I’d dial it up to Sunny 16 / Cloudy 11 anyway, so the 2.8 advantage was negated. I ended up selling and getting this lens and a 135mm. While the 135 is awesome for indoor low-light, this 55-250mm has surprisingly great quality for lightweight unassuming outdoor use, which I did not expect for the price and compared to other lenses I’ve used. It weighs about as much as the 50mm 1.8 USM, doesn’t attract attention, or even need a hood for this price. And the IS is insane. It might be better than my 2.8 had. You can stop time with this thing, and it has gorgeous color. Plus the reach is really nice from 55-250mm, extremely usable mid to long distance. This is a surprising and super bargain that I’d recommend to anyone on a cropped system like 7D, x0, x00 level Canons. ----- Update: I still use this on my R6 mirrorless with the Canon modifier for EF/EF-S lenses. I'm able to easily get waist-up or shoulders-up shots of players in the outfield or pitching. This is an outdoor lens given f/4 is as bright as it gets and its not L quality (like my 70-200) but the image quality is really underrated for the price.

I was please when I opened the shipper and found the Canon "Renewed" white box with lens safely nestled in it. Inner box was held securely in the shipper. Comes with all paperwork. No damage and if it arrived in the original Canon box I wouldn't have known this was "renewed". Great warranty included as it is a USA warranty and not "grey market" with no warranty. Worked perfectly when mounted and I have been using it almost daily since receiving it. Pics of many wild birds at our feeders and surrounding trees look sharp and zoom is smooth. Auto focus and IS slide bars work like new. Lens is perfect. Highly recommended Canon lens.